The invention relates to a magnetic stirrer with a housing, which accommodates an electric stirring drive in the form of alternately excitable magnetic coils or electromagnets as well as at least one circuit board having a control circuit with control components mounted on this circuit board for the stirring drive, and with a top, essentially horizontal contact surface for a container holding the goods to be stirred and also a stirring magnet, wherein the magnetic coils are arranged underneath the contact surface and one of their ends is turned towards the contact surface as the driving end.
Such magnetic stirrers have been known for a long time, e.g., from DE 32 48 455 A1, and have been proven in practice. Magnetic coils or electromagnets with alternately rotating magnetic fields avoid the use of rotatable parts, so that wear and maintenance are reduced relative to a magnetic stirrer with a drive motor and a rotatable magnet.
However, due to the power requirements on the magnetic coils, such magnetic stirrers have a nontrivial overall height, which means they have correspondingly large space requirements in laboratories.